Cost of Pottstown field lights illuminates opportunity

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Pottstown School Board member Andrew Kefer said that the $225,000 it would cost to replace the lights in Grigg Memorial Stadium is less than one-half of 1 percent of Pottstown’s $50 million school budget.

That’s still a lot of money.So we welcome the news that rather than fix the lights with the money in hand from a state budget that was slightly more generous than anticipated, the school board decided there were other things that should get a higher priority for funding.

After all, the absence of lights would not mean the end of Trojan football, just Trojan football played at night.

But it is a tradition and one which, hopefully, the community can rally around to save.

Although $225,000 is certainly a lot of money, it is not so much that a successful capital campaign can’t be staged to raise it.

Board member Amy Francis was the first to note at last week’s meeting that the feedback she has received suggests the community believes there are better uses for that money.

She was also the first to suggest that the answer to the problem may be found by consulting the community.

To the board’s credit, this idea was supported by board members Ron Williams, Kefer, Polly Weand, Tom Hylton and Acting Superintendent Jeff Sparagana.

In fact, one idea has already been floated.

Given that The Hill School was recently approved for a $6 million athletic fields improvement project, Hylton suggested in The Mercury that the school be approached about sharing Grigg Stadium, as well as the cost of replacing the lights.

Hill School Communications Director Cathy Skitko said the school has a tradition of sharing its facilities with the community and is certainly open to the conversation.

The new fields planned for The Hill, which will get lights and artificial turf, “will be used primarily for lacrosse, field hockey and soccer,” said Skitko, a former member of the Pottstown School Board.

However, she also noted that the project won’t go anywhere until The Hill raises the money to pay for it.

Which sounds very familiar to the school board.

A non-turf field like Grigg stadium might not be able to sustain regular play from more than one sport during the same season, but that doesn’t mean a way can’t be found to save both The Hill and the school district money.

Anything that can help reduce the cost of new lights will make it easier for the community to make up the difference.

Presumably, this is the kind of situation for which the Foundation for Pottstown Education was formed and that group too, under Myra Forrest’s leadership, has a role to play.

And other ideas can be gleaned from a community meeting Williams suggested holding.

Whatever the outcome, we applaud the board for rejecting a knee-jerk decision of simply going to the taxpayer well.

Hopefully the community, which labors under that tax load, will appreciate it as well and participate in crafting a solution that is tailor-made for Pottstown.